The meeting ARIA@FARMA: The Role of the Community Pharmacy Supported by Mobile Health in Respiratory Allergy, is scheduled for June 1, at the headquarters of CINTESIS – Center for Health Technology and Services Research, starting at 2 p.m.
With the presence of Jean Bousquet, a renowned international specialist in allergy, this meeting will kick off an international project that aims to “compare the impact of using a decision support system using the Allergy Diary app with the standard care in the control of allergic rhinitis, within the scope of community pharmacy,” explains João Fonseca, a specialist in Immune-Allergology and a CINTESIS researcher in the area of technologies applied to health.
Allergic rhinitis is the most prevalent form of rhinitis, affecting about 30% of the world population. Although it is usually underestimated, this disease negatively affects patients’ quality of life, compromising sleep, motor function, cognition and participation in social activities. In fact, the Allergy Diary app helped the medical-scientific community to realize the impact of rhinitis on reducing the professional performance of patients, quantifying presenteeism – a term used to define situations in which an employee is at his/her workplace but is not actually working.
Most patients with allergic rhinitis self-medicate with drugs they get from pharmacies. “Pharmacists are health professionals whom patients trust. They usually work in a regime of proximity and accessibility at the highest level,” says the CINTESIS researcher. “Most patients with allergic diseases are the basis for allergic rhinitis management in most countries,” he adds. “Pharmacists are in a position that allows them to identify, monitor and review patients with allergic rhinitis in community pharmacies.”
The meeting will start at 2 p.m. and the Opening Session will be held by Altamiro da Costa Pereira (CINTESIS coordinator and professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the U.Porto) and Jean Bousquet (University of Montepellier, France).
At 3:00 p.m., Jean Bousquet, emeritus professor of Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Montpellier (France), founder of ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis and Impact on Asthma) in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), and president of the WHO Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases between 2005 and 2013, will deliver the conference “From guidelines to mHealth to change management – the example of allergic rhinitis impact on asthma”.
The panel on “Pharmaceutical and mHealth services – integration challenges in the health system” is scheduled for 3:40 p.m. The objective is to promote the debate among the most important institutional stakeholders associated to the Pharmacy and mHealth area. For this session institutional representatives of the Order of Pharmacists, the National Pharmacy Association, the Association of Portuguese Pharmacies, the Faculty of Pharmacy of U.Porto, and of CINTESIS, were invited. The debate will be moderated by Francisco Rocha-Gonçalves, member of the executive council of the IPO-Porto and researcher at CINTESIS.
It is worth mentioning that mobile Health (mHealth) is one of the most promising areas for remote monitoring and self-management of chronic diseases, such as asthma or allergic rhinitis. “The association of this new health care paradigm to the contact that Community Pharmacies have with patients deserves to be explored, in the best interest of the patients,” explains João Fonseca.
The meeting will continue with the speeches of the meeting’s promoters. Elísio Costa speaks at 5:10 p.m. on “Treatment adherence, ageing and mHealth” and then Ema Paulino of the Holon Group and the International Federation of Pharmacy will address the “Pharmaceutical Care and Respiratory Allergy”.
After the break, at around 5:50 p.m., it is up to João A. Fonseca to make a retrospective of the Allergy Diary app in Portugal. Olga Lourenco will end the presentations with the ARIA Study in Pharmacies.
Registrations are free but limited to the room capacity (60 px).
FINAL PROGRAM (in Portuguese)
Click here for English version